Sunday, November 02, 2008

Whispers of Sweet Somethings...

I met my friend Patti at Starbucks on Saturday morning while I was studying for my Chemistry exam.

After a few minutes, we started talking politics. We can't help it you see. We're part of a rather large conspiracy in this country to make a change that doesn't involve four or eight more years of whatever the heck we call this last eight.

Like most liberals in this country (at least I think I'm like most liberals in this country) I wonder to myself as I go to sleep at night how the hell we got to electing and re-electing George W. Bush.

Then I realize that we didn't really. That's what really kills me. We have been robbed, defrauded and lied to so many times...many of us aren't even sure if we can trust this election to be open an honest anymore than the last one was.

And then I wonder how any great majority could possibly THINK that four years of McCain could possibly change anything.

I won't even get started on the people who actually think that NO change is a good thing. I'm not sure what bubble you're in, but trust me, I'm not in there with you.

No, the rest of us crazy liberals want to see the world open its eyes on Wednesday morning to a larger-than-predicted win for Barack Obama, so they can see that we're not a bunch of lunatics who think we're just the best thing in the world.

Sorry, people, but at the risk of being told I hate America...I'm here to tell you we're not.

We're a good country. We're a young country. We are WAY too much action and way too little on talk in places that involve people's lives.

So Patti and I had seen the news that Obama's in a serious hunt for the White House. There's talk of depressed McCain voters who might just stay home, and joyous Obama supporters who might come out in droves knowing their man is going to win.

We whisper all of this because like most anyone who's lived with the past eight years, we're aching for the shoe to be on the other foot, and we're simultaneously afraid of spoiling it, jinxing it, whatever...by saying it too loudly.

I wonder if Republicans will ever get how hard the past eight years have been for us, as we've seen our civil freedoms stealthily eroded and some taken away. If they'll ever understand how UN-democratic the past eight years have been. How things like holding and torturing prisoners in Guantanamo Bay is so NOT what this country is about. How un-Christian we treat people, under the guise of a holy war.

How on Earth...

And here we are, just 48 hours or so from polls starting to close across this country, and we whisper "Could it be?"

Yes it can.

I can't wait for the Obama administration to come into being. To watch him shock those fearful people into seeing that he says what he means and means what he says. That he really will try and unify this country, not tear it apart.